Calliope's Wings

by Guin Archer

  “You are quite hungry,” Mari noted idly as Orla topped my bowl off.

  “Very much. It has been a very long few lune and sol.”

  “My Daal says the Tohtahk is four sol away. The Zikta at the Horn says they are riding as though the One is at their backs.” Gaddi hummed over her cup of tea and gave me a knowing look. “I would think it is because our Taytani returns to us alone, but I believe it might have to do with the Tyk’rok She claims for Her Visivi more.”

  No comment. First Amendment and all that jazz.

  “He is…unusual looking. I had not thought You would choose one such as he.”

  “Do I think less of you because of your dark skin, Gaddi?” At her shamefaced blush and dropping chin, I nodded stiffly. “You see, it is not his body I am drawn to, though I do find him very desirable. As he has told me before, we were made for each other. I feel this in my heart.”

  “Of course, my friend. I was too free with my words.”

  “You can speak to me of anything, Gaddi. Do not be upset. I am not mad.” I reached over to pat the back of her hand before returning to my breakfast. I peered around at all my girls and frowned. “I thought they would be here now.”

  “They are seeing to Your command, Calliope,” Mari’et spoke up as she spread butter over a dark bread. She hummed while chewing. “They will be finding the bishtak Uptip and Zek. What they led to happen to You was the worst sin against the One. The whole of Luintak will search them out for punishment.”

  Good.

  Needing not to think about my men leaving to hunt down the siblings – leaving me – I beamed at my healer friend. It was a struggle not to waggle my eyebrows, thin though they now were, at her. She probably wouldn’t have understood the gesture.

  “Tell me of your chosen mate, Mari’et. She is Gaddi’s tersti?”

  The spit-take she performed was worth its weight in gold.

  Breakfast was a long, drawn-out affair that I relished with my girlfriends. I was more than pleased when Adis, Sezza, and Bess joined us. Bess, the female whom I’d named and had chosen, in turn, to keep that designation, was now mated to Rohahn. She looked stunning wearing her glittering bakal and a new, daisy-yellow dress.

  Take that, you elitist fucks. A slave can be a Pasha. Proves slavery is a fucking sham.

  We all chatted and ate heartily and by the end of it, I felt like I could fall dead asleep.

  That wasn’t how things were to be, however.

  Breakfast ended in a crash course of court etiquette – a vague concept since I had final say in everything, including how I acted – and then a rush into the main hall. There was a line formed long enough for me to imagine Universal just opened a new ride for the season and everyone wanted on. It stretched from the throne, across the room, and out the side door. Some of the Lubrei were bearing baskets or bric-a-brac, but most were without burden. A fair amount of them looked sick or hurt.

  My Zikta guard were scattered around the room, but nearer to the throne with at least a dozen Mahzri camped by the doorways.

  They all clocked me when I strode into the hall with Sekhmet at my back.

  “Innintani!” The cheer went up, long and loud.

  Okay. Fuck. Maybe I’m not ready to be in this world.

  It was too late, though. I was here and I’d said goodbye to my old existence. That meant that I needed to take on everything that this life entailed. I was a fallen angel – ah-ha, ha ha ha – and a ‘messenger’ for the One. And while I didn’t have any illusions about my ineptitude in passing on the word of a God, I knew I had some mojo in this body. I could heal. I had the ability and the power to stop some of the injustices of this realm.

  First stop to world peace was catering to all the souls waiting for me.

  My serah jingled and chimed as I marched up to the throne. Hathor was there already, chittering to her daughter behind me. The elder female nuzzled me when I got close and then let me be once I was seated. The two females donned the same airs they’d had during the Jiktau, watching the Lubrei with keen eyes and taut bodies.

  If anyone was idiot enough to make a move on me now, they’d be dead. Real dead, not my dead.

  My girlfriends meandered off to the side where a lineup of smaller, less ornate chairs were set along the wall while my attendants stayed to the back of my throne and silent. I had seen pillows and low tables there and hoped they would take a seat. I didn’t think this first session of court was going to be a quick one.

  I waved up the first of the Tauren, an elderly male with a heavy limp, with a soft roll of my hand.

  “Ido, los’kah. Speak to your Innintani.”

  And so it began.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  It was on the fourth day exactly when Kor erupted into the Hall.

  The male was a steaming mass of black muscle, his silvered eyes glittering dangerously. Especially when he spied his uncle leaned over the right arm of my throne and whispering in my elongated, pierced ear.

  His roar deafened me.

  “Leave uum Taytani!”

  “You do not command me, Tohtahk.” Vorch was harder than the marble around us as he stood up straight. He padded to the front of the insignificant dais my throne was set upon. There were flower petals tossed on the single, wide step from an earlier entrant. I’d promised to come out to her homestead and ‘bless’ their grounds with rain for a better harvest.

  Just force a sad thought and cry, I told myself. You cry and the sky cries.

  Being a living barometer was going to take some getting used to.

  “You do not belong here,” Kor grated out, unsheathing his blade.

  Uh-oh.

  I stood. “I beg forgiveness, but I must ask you all to return later.” I gestured furtively for my attendants and the other palace slaves as the family members stalked closer to each other. Vorch had also unveiled his own, shorter blades which he held in both hands. “Follow the kut. They will see you comfortably settled and fed until I can return after mid-sol meal.”

  The auras of the Gishtak in the room told me that no one was mortally hurt and I’d asked for two kut to remain at the entryway to the palace to pull anyone who had matters that needed attending to immediately. I didn’t want anyone in dire straights to be stuck in line behind someone with a petty dispute, for which there were many.

  I had a huge respect for born-Majesties who must’ve dealt with bullshit like I was facing with more patience than I knew I had within me. If I had to hear one more complaint about a Lorun impregnating another that wasn’t a part of its herd and who held rights to the calf, I was going to lose my shit.

  “Los’kah,” I hissed as the Gishtak were escorted out. I moved closer towards the circling duo and raised my hands, palms-out in a staying gesture. Ruune was so close on my heels that I almost tripped over his feet. “Do not do this.”

  “She is uum biis’a,” Kor snarled. Vorch was outwardly calmer, but his lavender aura blazed with anger.

  “She is auumat.”

  “Lo!” Kor lunged at Vorch, but the bigger male dodged competently. Their blades clanged viciously. I halfway expected sparks to ignite in the literal sense.

  “Why does no one listen to me?” I huffed and flared my wings, alighting into the air. My Xerbai expressed his upset with me taking an actual leap into danger, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it since I had the advantage.

  Inwardly, I was tickled to be the big bad on the block. Outwardly, I was wrangling my temper into submission.

  I’d expected this. I’d figured the two males would come to blows, but I’d hoped better for them. For us. Four days Kor could’ve taken to cool his heels, but he’d used them instead to drive himself up the wall. I knew what happened with Vorch because he’d told me and I believed him wholeheartedly, but I didn’t doubt that Kor was poisoned by his father against the male that should’ve been his uncle in more than just blood. He’d have known Vorch as a brother-in-arms if things had been different. Perhaps they’d even have bee
n together when I woke in Blackburhn under Mathai’s thumb and I wouldn’t have had to die the way I did this last time.

  Could’ve, should’ve, would’ve… Doesn’t matter now, Io. Just get’em to stop and see reason.

  I landed between them with a muted thump and folded my wings protectively between me and them. I wasn’t an idiot. It didn’t matter how skilled either of them were with weaponry, and I knew they’d both been groomed for the Horde like all the others, there was still a chance they could slip. Jed’s potshot into my thigh was proof of that. I wasn’t infallible. I bet I could still die and, at this point, I didn’t feel like playing the Resurrection game anymore.

  Both sneered their tusks at me.

  “Move,” Vorch ordered while never leaving his pinkened eyes from his nephew. My magic or power or whatever had shifted his crimson eyes to a shimmery pink verging on being silver. Truth be told, I thought they were pretty as fuck.

  “Stand away from each other.” I enunciated each word slowly and precisely so they didn’t misunderstand me. They didn’t, but they also didn’t listen.

  “Tyk’rok,” Kor gritted out while trying to step around me. I clipped him with a wingtip until he backed up and barked in anger at me. “Leave. You are not welcome here.”

  Before Vorch could open his mouth and possibly make things worse, I took the option from his hands. I turned my head to glare in a direct path to the seething Tohtahk.

  “He is uum Muir, Kor, just as you are uum Drake. You must accept him here with us.”

  “Lo.” His tusks clacked against his upper teeth as he gnashed his jaw. He hadn’t put down his sword yet. “This is the los’kah that betrayed the Udon. He betrayed his brago and the Pasha he claimed. He does not belong here.”

  “Was your sire a good los’kah, Kor?”

  That brought him up short. His big feet ceased in their skilled, warrior’s dance and he finally brought his focus down to me. I watched his jaw tighten and his eyes gleam with what I presumed to be memories. His greying aura told me they weren’t good ones.

  I nodded my head slowly.

  “I was blessed with a sire and dam who loved me. They were the best of…Innintani.” I couldn’t call them Tauren, but there wasn’t a word I knew in any language of Intau to call a human a human. “Not all are so lucky. Some lie. Some cheat. Some steal. Some beat their shimi because they can. Some are just cruel.

  “I think your sire was like this. He was cruel. Even without Vorch to say so, I have heard things. Your sire was not a kind los’kah.”

  “He was Tohtahk.”

  “Yes, but so was Vorch. Tohtahk is a title; one that is earned. Do you believe your sire earned it fairly?” At his furrowing brow, I bobbed my head carefully. “Did he fight for his right? Did he defeat Vorch in battle? Did he claim his title by right of might? Or did he use his cunning to move his brago, who was in his way, since he knew he could not best him?”

  “You do not know what You speak of, Biis’a. Move aside.”

  “Lo, uum Tohtahk. I will not.” I turned more fully toward him and donned a mutinous expression. I felt the heat of Ruune’s and Vorch’s bodies come up against my back. One hand each touched lightly against my shoulders. Their support gave me strength.

  “Innintani…,” Kor warned darkly, his hands chafing against the hilt of his blade.

  “That is right, Kor. I am Innintani. You told me once so long ago that I do not ask, I say. So, I say to you now; Vorch is part of my Visivi. He was matched for me as much as you and Ruune were. I will not allow him to leave me.” I softened my tone when Kor’s body locked up defensively and in hurt. This was killing me to ‘take sides’. “I do not expect you to be as brago. You do not need to like that he is here, but it is here he will stay. You must come to accept this.”

  Kor fumed silently, his jaw tight enough to grind bricks. He didn’t look away from me and I felt a spike of betrayal from him, as though I was choosing a male he hated over him. I guessed that, in a way, I was. The problem was, though, that I knew I was right. All four of us were destined for each other. We needed to be allied, not pitted against each other.

  Moreover, I needed them.

  The three males had earned my affections and my loyalty. They’d saved me from this world and from myself. I’d do anything for them. Anything. And I knew that bridges needed to be mended between Kor and Vorch. For us to succeed in doing better for Intau, we needed to be united. After all, how could we help anyone if we ourselves were fractured?

  The Tohtahk abruptly sheathed his sword and turned sharply on his elongated feet. Like so many times before, he stomped away in his gravely silent way. His aura was teeming with ire and discomfort. The last glance he’d fixed on me had been one of hurt before he blinked the expression away and donned his mask of impenetrability.

  My heart cracked a little at seeing him go.

  “You did what You had to, uum Taytani,” Ruune mumbled into my ear. His chin nuzzled my temple.

  “It does not make this less difficult.”

  “It would not,” Vorch agreed solemnly. His blades snicked back into the hilts before he pressed a palm to my lower back. He was walking us towards one of the side doors which would lead to the main dining hall. “Ido. You are hungry and there are matters we must discuss.”

  I didn’t know how much I could stomach, but he was right. We had things we needed to talk about.

  Unlike I’d first assumed, Vorch and Ruune hadn’t left the palace. They meant what they said when they told me repetitively that they weren’t leaving my side. While they allowed me some freedom to wander, I was never left unattended. Ruune took charge of the palace slaves and the running of the palace while Vorch supervised the runners, who couriered proclamations and directives out through the Southlands based upon any of my vocalizations in the Hall, and commanded the remaining Zikta. The two of them, too, with the aid of Rohahn and Forte, were attempting to corral Uptip and Zek.

  While they searched, I also had them on the lookout – ears perked for anything remotely suspicious-sounding – of ‘odd’ females. Specifically, I was looking for other women like me. If I could find any of them, if there were any to be found, I wasn’t going to let them suffer the way I had. So I had the Lubrei on the lookout for waif-like, pale, short, One-eyed females.

  Tan smiled at me as she finished setting out the lunch spread. Shree was currently giving Sekhmet’s enlarging tummy a stiff oiling so her hide didn’t dry out where it was stretching. Hathor was leaned over the back of her daughter so their long necks were side-by-side on the ground. The two were at the opposite end of the long table in deference to their knowing of my churning stomach whenever that oil was brought out. It smelled like peeled, hard-boiled eggs and made me gag every time.

  Once seated, each of my men taking to a side, we settled in for our meal. I was barely a few spoonfuls into my broth when Vorch spoke up. He’d been broaching on the topic when Kor came in, so I wasn’t too unprepared for the conversation we were going to have.

  “We can remain in Mel’lau only until the end of the cold season, my sweet. Once the last of the rains have passed, we must begin Your movement through the Southlands.” He munched on a fig-looking thing that had a wickedly bitter taste to it caught somewhere between a lemon and cranberry. I hated the things. “Naturally, we should proceed with the Udon. It is natural for the Udon to travel from the Dark Sea to Drydan and back again before the next winter. However, we will need to break away to join my Tyk’rok, at least for a season. They have need of Your presence as much, if not more, than the rest of Luintak.”

  I couldn’t disagree with that. The exiled were fortunate, as far as I’d been able to see based on the state of Vorch’s ship, to have as bountiful a life as they did. They were isolated, though. Isolation reaped only despair and hardship. With any luck, I’d be able to do some good for them.

  I made a mental note to ask Vorch how we could set up a regular trade with the ship-city so they wouldn’t have to worry about possibl
e rejection from any of the ports. Part of that would come from me outlawing discrimination against the Tyk’rok, but that would take time. Probably a lot of it.

  Rome wasn’t built in a day, as they say.

  “You will likely be sought out wherever the Udonak is set up. We have not been blessed with a fully-transitioned Innintani in generations. A pillau should be arranged outside of the Udonak so You may be approached neutrally.”

  God, I loved listening to his voice, especially when he spoke in a mix of tongues I knew. I was filling in some of the blanks with what made sense in my head, but the Horde’s Tongue was basic. Burdah and others had more expressions and eloquence. I also didn’t feel like I was grunting every other word out like a dog or listening to someone bark at me.

  “One is being made as we speak.” Ruune tapped my hand with a claw when I hadn’t moved to take another bite. He knew he had to urge me into eating or I wouldn’t. It was a silent way for him to take care of me and I appreciated it. “She will still take rest in Her pillau, but this one will be set openly for Her to see to Her Tauren. Mari’et will stay behind here, in Mel’lau, for any that need minor care.”

  That made me sad, knowing that I’d be leaving Mari behind. It was better that way, though. She was a competent healer and it’d be good to have someone I trusted staying in the palace to keep an eye on things.

  I peered over at my lecherous old man.

  “You will ensure a guard remains here with her and her chosen one, Corta. I will not have her hurt again.”

  “As you say, uum Taytani,” he nodded to me formally. Then a wicked grin. “And I shall guard You. Where shall I start? Your breasts are endlessly pleasing and I would hate to see them neglected.”

  Pervert. Randy old pervert.

  Tan, who stood nearby, glowered at the dirty-talking male. She hated his mouth and how unsolicitous he was. She thought he should be better behaved with me, like Ruune was.

  Oh, if only she knew how bad my Xerbai could be.

  Ruune pulled me closer to him and away from the other male, as though he was afraid Vorch was going to snatch me up and have his wicked way with me. It was possible, yeah, but I was getting pretty good at reading him. The horned male liked to talk a big game and, while entirely capable of acting on his words, he tended towards blustering. It was part of his charm.